Diana Mini : Does Size Matter?

I must admit that I was very excited to test drive the Diana Mini when I received it yesterday. I was curious how it will perform … will ’she’ produce photos that are close to what its elder sister (the Diana F+) can churn out? Is it just a cute pretty camera?

I quickly loaded a roll of expired negative (200) and started firing away at 10pm around home and on the way to work the next morning. By lunch the test roll was ready.

2. The feature to allow switching between the square format & half frame is way cool. No more banging my head on the wall trying to finish 72 frames on a normal half frame camera!

3. Able to trigger the shutter without having to fully advance a frame means it is possible to make crazy pano shots.

4. The shutter release is not as ‘loose’ as the Diana F+ cameras … this means less risk of accidentally firing a shot.

5. You can use a shutter release cable on it without having to buy an adapter (like in the Diana F+).

6. The little film counter behind the camera is a little too small. Hmm. How big can they make it, since the cam is so tiny? Hahaha! Must be my old eyes that’s to blame.

7. Lens cap seems to fall off easily. Be careful with it.

8. Doing multiple exposures is a piece of cake with the Mini. Just like the Diana F+ cameras, you can just press the shutter release as many times as you want without having to use any multi-exposure (MX) buttons/switch.

9. The supplied strap is a little clumsy on the little cam. I removed mine and will find a wrist strap instead.

10. The distance ‘dial’ in front of the lens is a little too small for fat fingers like mine and also the ‘arrow’ that points to the printed distance guide … is pretty hard to look at because the ‘arrow’ is black and the background of the front (where the 1-2M, 2-4M etc are) is also back. Possibly the problem is due to my lousy fuzzy eyeballs though.

11. Cute and small (did I already mention this?)

Do I like it? If course I do! It’s a must-have if you love the Diana F+ camera and a definitely-must-have if you love cute and cool cameras.

5 Comments

Thanks. :D I thought this review might never make it because I listed some not-so-good points up there. Hahaha. But then what's a review if it's all about praising and nothing -ve? :D I like the mini though. I am having a 2nd one on the way here too. :D

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